JumpCam brings its collaborative video editing app to Android

JumpCam, an app that allows users to make short and shareable videos together, launched its Android version Monday. The launch on Android came less than two months after JumpCam debuted on iOS – but talk to JumpCam CEO and co-founder David Stewart, and he will tell you that the debut on Android couldn’t come soon enough.

That’s because for JumpCam, viral really only works with native apps. If Stewart had built just another Vine clone, going iOS-only would have been fine – especially if the video would also have been available on the web. But with JumpCam, the whole idea is that others not only watch a video, but contribute to it.

JumpCam users ask their friends to add some clips from last night’s party or even from a wedding to a collaborative video — and they don’t spend a whole lot of time wondering whether the friends they invite are on iOS and Android. “Most of the invites were going out to people who don’t have iPhones,” said Stewart during an interview Friday. That wasn’t just a lost opportunity for JumpCam, but also a frustrating experience for iOS users, who just weren’t able to have some of their friends participate.

That’s why JumpCam made launching on Android its number one priority, despite the challenges it faced dealing with a much wider variety of hardware and OEM customizations around camera apps. “It does take a little bit more elbow grease,” admitted Stewart.

The Android version if JumpCam largely offers the same features as its iOS counterpart, but Stewart told me that his team tried to make Android users feel at home. Just porting the iOS design “didn’t feel right,” he said. (Speaking of which: If you’re interested in app design, make sure to check out Gigaom’s Roadmap conference in San Francisco this week, where I will be interviewing MailBox co-founder Gentry Underwood.)

So what’s next for JumpCam? Stewart told me that there are plans for an iPad version as well as a version optimized for bigger Android tablets (the now-launched version already accommodates 7-inch tablets). He added that JumpCam also wants to add more editing features to the app.

JumpCam is being built by a 9-person team, and the company has raised $2.7 million from Trinity Ventures, Google Ventures and others.